The present invention relates generally to electronic form processing. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for processing electronic forms that includes a value-added data conversion.
Electronic commerce often benefits from electronic file sharing. One type of electronic file that is commonly exchanged between companies is a purchase order or service request. Purchase orders are often used when a customer company wants to purchase products from a vendor company. For typical purchase orders, the customer determines or selects desired products or services and places this order or request into a paper or electronic format. The customer may be assisted in identifying the required goods by referring to supplier and vendor catalogs or databases. When electronic commerce is used, the vendor must be able to understand the electronic file containing the customerxe2x80x3s request. That is, the vendor must be able to recognize the customerxe2x80x3s electronic data file as a purchase order, and must be able to properly interpret the contents of the electronic file.
A common way of enabling businesses to communicate using electronic commerce is to employ a data translator. Businesses use a diverse selection of electronic communications formats for their internal work, and each business is likely to have a different preferred format. Data translators convert the internal language used by one business into a language usable by another business.
One type of data translator is an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system. EDI systems seek to provide a universal language to serve as an intermediary between the many diverse formats used by businesses. A typical EDI system uses a two-step process: first the EDI system translates data having the format of a first business into EDI data, a universal language that may be converted into other formats; and second, the EDI (or whatever performs the translation) translates the EDI data into the second businessxe2x80x3s preferred format. The second step typically may be performed when a second business (using a different preferred data format for its own internal purposes) wishes to access the first businessxe2x80x3s data, or when the first business wishes to send its data to a second business. Thus, an EDI system uses two translators: one to translate the first businessxe2x80x3s language into EDI data, and a second to translate the EDI data into the second businessxe2x80x3s language.
One drawback of an EDI system is that it requires multiple data translations, which may be difficult to implement and may increase the likelihood for error. Often, both the first and second businesses must have EDI compatibility, and it may be incumbent upon the sending party to ensure that its internal preferred format is translated into an EDI format that is readable by the intended recipient. In addition, such systems often rely on outside vendors to provide the EDI software and to perform the actual EDI translation, which may be costly.
In some circumstances, businesses may find it unnecessary to use an EDI system to communicate with one another. For example, if two businesses have a continuous interchange of information that does not require communications to other parties, then a direct translation from the preferred format of the first business to the preferred format of the second business may be more economical, less complex, and less prone to errors than an EDI system. An EDI system may also be unnecessarily complex and expensive when a single vendor only needs to convert a variety of customersxe2x80x3 different data formats into its own preferred format. In such a case, there is no need to translate the different customersxe2x80x3 different preferred formats into a universal format that may be read by anyone, because only the vendor will read the data. In this case, the vendor may wish to employ direct translators between itself and each customer.
EDI systems and direct translators typically provide a direct translation of the content of the data having the first businesses format into the second businessxe2x80x3s format. Such a translation is similar to a linguistic translation, in which a word is simply changed from one language into another. For example, using a conventional system, when a customer business transmits a purchase order having a set of items to a vendor business, the vendor business will receive exactly the same list that was provided by the customer (albeit, translated into a format readable by the vendor business). With such systems and translators, the customer bears the burden of transmitting a complete and thorough message to the vendor.
In some purchasing environments, such as the context of purchasing equipment having multiple parts or subassemblies, both the purchasing customer and the equipment manufacturer may have difficulty using existing data translation systems. In some cases, a purchaser will not be able to determine exactly what product is appropriate for the customerxe2x80x3s needs. For example, a purchaser of a complex mechanical or electrical device, such a turbine control system, may have difficulty determining exactly how to specify the desired product in a purchase order. Such a customer may have such a complex variety of other assemblies, parts or systems with which the desired product must be compatible, that the customer would essentially have to design the desired product from the ground up. When such a customer desires to create an appropriate purchase order, the customer will have to enter all of the required parts of the desired product in meticulous detail. The vendor or manufacturer will then have to manipulate the list of parts to create an appropriate manufacturing schedule with the required shipping dates. In such cases, the vendor or manufacturer, who may have more experience and capability to design the appropriate system, may wish to offer these design services to the customer in a simple format requiring reduced customer effort.
It would be desirable to provide a method and system for translating data from one format to a second format without employing unnecessary, complex, inefficient, or expensive translation devices or methods. It would also be desirable to provide a method and system for translating data that relieves the sender of the burden of formatting the data into a format that the recipient may use. It would further be desirable to provide a method and system for translating data that relieves the sender of the burden of sending unnecessarily detailed information in a message. It would also be desirable to provide a system for receiving a customerxe2x80x3s purchase request in a simplified format, expanding that simplified format into a detailed request, and directly converting that request into an efficient manufacturing schedule.
The present invention overcomes the problems discussed above, and provides additional advantages, by employing an electronic form processing system and method. The electronic form processing system uses one or more vendor computers adapted to communicate with at least one customer computer, and adapted to access supplier data. One or more storage devices contain customer-formatted data sets, and a retrieval agent retrieves customer-formatted data sets representing custom electronic form information from the customer computer. The customer electronic form information represents a incomplete request for products, services or the like. An expansion module converts the customer-formatted data sets and generates expanded data sets at least in part by referring to supplier data. The expanded data set represents an essentially complete request.
The electronic form processing system may also have one or more second storage devices having customer profile data stored on them. In order to generate the expanded data set, the system may further refer to the customer profile data. The first storage devices and at least one of the second storage devices may be the same storage device, and at least one of the first and second storage devices may be a remote storage device accessible by at least one vendor computer to obtain one or more customer-formatted data sets. At least one of the first and second storage devices may be at least partially operated by at least one customer computer.
The customer-formatted data sets associated with each of the customer computers may have a format unique to that customer computer. The customer-formatted data sets may comprise high level product requests and the expanded data may comprise one or more detailed product descriptions. The expanded data further may also comprise manufacturing scheduling information, pricing information, or shipping information.
The retrieval agent of the electronic form processing system may also be adapted to retrieve updated customer formatted data and the vendor computers may be adapted to alter the expanded data to at least partially conform with the updated customer-formatted data.
A method for upselling a customer purchase request is also provided. The method includes adapting one or more vendor computers to communicate with a customer computer, retrieving one or more customer-formatted data sets representing customer electronic purchase request form information from one or more storage devices, retrieving customer profile data from one or more second storage devices, obtaining supplier data, and converting the customer-formatted data into an expanded data set at least in part by referring to at least one of the customer profile data and the supplier data. The customer electronic form information comprises an incomplete request and the expanded data set comprises an essentially complete request having at least one optional feature.